1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus which synthesizes a plurality of pieces of image data acquired by performing a pixel shift in a movement amount which is less than a pixel pitch to generate an image with a high resolution, and an image processing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an image pickup apparatus which moves a relative position between an image pickup device and a light flux received by the image pickup device in a movement amount, which is less than a pixel pitch in the image pickup device, to perform image pickup and synthesizes an acquired plurality of pieces of image data to generate an image with a higher resolution has been known.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 7-240870, for example, discusses a technique for displacing a relative position between an object image formed by a shooting optical system and an image pickup device by a ½ pixel pitch in a horizontal direction and/or a vertical direction by bending with a variable angle prism and synthesizing a plurality of pieces of image data acquired at the displaced position to generate an image with a high resolution.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 6-225317 discusses a technique for shifting an image pickup device by one pixel pitch in a horizontal or vertical direction and by a ½ pixel pitch in an oblique direction by a piezoelectric element to perform image pickup at respective pixel shifting positions and synthesizing an acquired plurality of images to generate an image with a high resolution.
However, in recent years, a technique for manufacturing an image pickup device has been advanced so that a pixel opening ratio has been improved. For example, a pixel opening ratio in which a pixel opening width exceeds 50% of a pixel pitch has also been proposed.